Pakatan must endorse Johor Demand
The Johor Friends of Suaram and Hindraf Makkal Sakti said only then will Pakatan get their electoral support.
Athi Shankar, FMT
The Johor Friends of Suaram and Hindraf Makkal Sakti have come up with a Johor Demand and wants Pakatan Rakyat to endorse it.
They say Pakatan must endorse it, if they want their electoral support in Johore In a joint-statement here today, Friends of Suram coordinator, Ang Pei Shan and Hindraf’s Y Mohan said Johore Demand constituted three major demands: racism, “nationalisation” of alien workers and Pengerang.
Mohan said the NGOs would want pre-election commitment from Pakatan to implement their demands if the coalition took over power in Johor or Putrajaya.
Yesterday, he said, the Johore Demand was submitted to the state branches of DAP, PKR and PAS.
“Our support for next general election must be on a win-win strategic alliance,” Mohan said.
The NGOs’ main demands were:
- Elimination of all racial oppression and work towards equality for all ethnic groups.
- To protect Johorean rights and interests in land acquisition under the Pengerang Integrated Petroleum Complex (PIPC) project.
- To repeal Article 153 of the Federal Constitution, the New Economic Policy (NEP), Bumi quota and Section 17(1) of the Education Act 1996 to achieve unity, social harmony and prosperity of the country.
They said the unequal provision in Article 153 had given a legal basis for UMNO-dominated Barisan Nasional ruling elites to practise institutionalised racism, create two classes of citizens of Malays and non-Malays.
The NGOs said the NEP and bumiputera quota system allowed BN ruling clique and cronies to enrich themselves while the Malays at large remained poor and live in abject poverty.
In this era of China and India emerging as big powers, they said any attempt to eliminate Chinese and Tamil education for the 6.96 million ethnic Chinese and 2.07 million ethnic Indians is wrong.
The NGOs want the authorities to establish more Chinese primary schools in Chinese dominated areas and Tamil primary schools in Bukit Indah, Mount Austin, Kota Tinggi and other areas in Johore.
The NGOs also want authorities to approve the application to revive the Segamat Chinese independent secondary school and give due recognition to United Examination Certificate (UEC) and degree of Southern College University.
The groups called on the state government to allocate land for Masai Hindu cemetery, which has now been hit by land shortage.
They said this would prevent poor Indian families from falling prey to loan sharks, who collect exorbitant interest on loans taken for cremation.
The groups resolutely opposed Project Mahathir because it was highly prejudicial to Malaysian citizenry rights.
Through Project M, the groups claimed that Umno elites has legalised illegal immigrants in Sabah and now in Peninsular.
According to conservative official statistics, they said three million aliens have been legalised and, issued long-term work permits and identity cards.